“What nownes make comparyson? All adiectyues welnere ȳ betoken a thynge that maye be made more or lesse: as fayre: fayrer: fayrest: black, blacker, blackest. How many degrees of comparacyon ben there? iij. the positiue ȳ comparatiue & the superlatyue. How knowe ye the posityue gēdre? For he is the groūde and the begynner of all other degrees of cōparyson. How knowe ye the comparatyue degre? for he passeth his posityue with this englysshe more, or his englysshe endeth in r, as more wyse or wyser. How knowe ye the superlatyue degre? for he passeth his posityue with engysshe moost: or his englisshe endeth in est: as moost fayre or fayrest, moost whyte or whytest.”
III. The Vulgaria of William Horman, 1519, is perhaps one of the most intrinsically curious and valuable publications in the entire range of our early philological literature. It would be easy to fill such a slender volume as that in the hands of the reader with samples of the contents without exhausting the store, but I must content myself with such extracts as seem most entertaining and instructive:—
“Physicians, that be all sette to wynne money, bye and sylle our lyues: and so oftē tymes we bye deth with a great and a sore pryce. Animas nostras æruscatores medici negociantur, &c.
“Papyre fyrste was made of a certeyne stuffe like the pythe of a bulrushe in Ægypt: and syth it is made of lynnen clothe soked in water, stāpte or grūde pressed and smothed. Chartæ seu papyri, &c.
“The greattest and hyest of pryce: is papyre imperyall. Augustissimum papyrum, &c.
“The prynters haue founde a crafte to make bokis by brasen letters sette in ordre by a frame. Calcographi artē, &c.
“Pryntynge hathe almooste vndone scryueners crafte. Chalcographia librariorū q̄stū pene exhavsit.
“Yf the prynters take more hede to the hastynge: than to the true settynge of theyr moldis: the warke is vtterly marred. Si qui libros, &c.”
The rest are given without the Latin equivalents, which have no particular interest.
“Scryueners write with blacke, redde, purple, gren, blewe, or byce: and suche other.